TAPPER: Lastly, I saw firsthand when I was down in Louisiana over the weekend, all the workers there, whether they work for the governor or for BP or for private contractors who work for BP, they’ve all been told not to talk to the press, not to talk to the public about their work. Shouldn’t they be allowed to share with the public the work that they’re doing?

ALLEN: I put out a written directive and I can provide it for the record that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations, except for two things, if it’s a security or safety problem. That is my policy. I’m the national incident commander.

TAPPER: Well, I can tell you firsthand people are not — people are not following that.

ALLEN: You take (ph) the information and you tell me where it’s at, and we’ll get the word to them.

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.